Effect of Surface Thermoelastic Deformation on the Performance of the Hydrodynamic Big-Size Step Bearing

Abstract

The multiscale lubrication analysis is presented for estimating the performance of the hydrodynamic big-size step bearing by incorporating the effects of the surface thermoelastic deformation and the lubricant molecule layers physically adsorbed to the bearing surface. The numerical calculation results show that in the condition of heavy loads and high sliding speeds, the effect of the surface thermoelastic deformation can reduce the minimum surface separation by 1 to 2 orders, while the effect of the physically adsorbed layer on the bearing surface significantly increases the minimum surface separation especially for the strong fluid-bearing surface interaction; The effect of the surface thermoelastic deformation largely modifies both the film pressure profile and the surface separation profile in the bearing; It also obviously changes the friction coefficient of the bearing. The effect of the physically adsorbed layer significantly influences the friction coefficient of the bearing only in the condition of heavy loads and high sliding speeds, which yields very low surface separations.